UPDATED: Muscat, PN, argue over 1998 permit

Adds PN reaction

Labour leader Joseph Muscat's lawyer, Dr Paul Lia, said this afternoon that instead of admitting its mistakes, the PN was persisting in giving wrong information about a development permit granted to Dr Muscat in 1998. It was also attacking his right of reply.

Dr Lia said the development permit issued to Dr Muscat bore the date March 27, 1998, when it was finalised. The other dates and details already published by Dr Muscat were the correct ones.

He said the PN was continuing to base itself on the little information there was on the Mepa wesite when it could easily see the original documents in Dr Muscat's file. The minister responsible for Mepa and the authorities concerned could also easily verify that the dates and details he had given were the correct ones.

Dr Lia said he was inviting journalists to do likewise. He also published a copy of the permit.

He reiterated that Dr Muscat's development permit application followed all the procedures laid down by law.

PN REACTION

The Nationalist Party said that Dr Muscat's lawyer had proved how right it was to question how the permit had been issued to Dr Muscat with such haste and before the expiry of the time laid down by law.

It said that what Dr Lia had actually published was a letter from Mepa to Dr Muscat with the permit conditions. It showed that the date which Dr Muscat had continuously referred to was the date of this letter and not the date when the decision was actually taken by the Development Control Commission to grant Dr Muscat his permit.

The law established that a 15-day period for public objections had to elapse before a decision on a permit could be taken. The notice of Dr Muscat's application was published on February 15 and the DCC could not decide on it before March 3 since the two weeks expired on March 2. But the DCC met and decided the matter on February 27, a day after the case officer filed her report.

The PN asked why there had been all this urgency and why procedure was not followed.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090729/local/pn-insists-muscat-permit-issued-early